Recently, I was talking to a Buddhist nun. Originally from Hanover, Germany, she had studied Buddhism in a course on religions, read a few more books, and left home and family to join an order in Taiwan. I asked her …Read More

My son, Danny, came home from his Japanese baseball practice exclaiming, “Dad, coach is making us worship the ground.” The coach had required them to bow toward the ground in worship. I called a Japanese pastor who said that this …Read More

The early church faced at least two distinct and competing enemies. While Jesus walked the earth and after, the great challenge to the kingdom of God was found both in the Roman Empire and in Judaism. An armed force that …Read More

C.S. Lewis gets many things right. Years ago, he concluded that there were only two possible answers to the religious search: either Hinduism or Christianity, which are ultimate, contradictory expressions of religion—that is, either One-ist pantheism or Two-ist …Read More

Philosophical Taoism, often represented by the yin-yang symbol, originated in China with the teacher Lao Tzu (604–517 BC ). Although we do not know much about his life, he left his teachings behind for posterity in a brief work called …Read More

Many Westerners’ impressions of Eastern spirituality have been shaped by gazing at puzzling statues of Buddha or by hearing George Harrison sing “My Sweet Lord” to Krishna. Those impressions can range from something unproductive to plain weird to strangely attractive …Read More